Flint City Councilman Eric Mays was removed as the Finance Committee Chairman, and removed by police before the decision was finalized on Wednesday, Jan. 23, 2019 at Flint City Hall in downtown Flint. (Jake May | MLive.com)

FLINT, MI-- Flint police have reassigned a police officer they say could be put to better use than mediating squabbles between city council members.

The news broke to 9th Ward Councilwoman Eva Worthing during a March 11 Flint City Council meeting.

She was disappointed the Flint Police Department feels a police presence is no longer necessary at council meetings.

“It felt like a slap in the face. It’s not just protection for me or anyone else on council, it’s protection for those who come to the council meetings,” Worthing said. “There have been times where residents have yelled back and forth at each other. I will be pursuing other avenues if the Flint police do not want to protect council as they would the mayor.”

Flint Police Detective Sgt. Tyrone Booth said the officer serving in the role has been shifted to the new child protection task force. Two officers from the department’s Crime Area Target Team are also being shifted onto the task force.

Moving the officer from the council gatherings came after an evaluation of where resources could best be utilized, Booth noted.

“There was a need we found in putting together a task force to address crimes against children because of that escalation," he said.

Booth noted the officer was originally placed at the council meetings “during the height of the water crisis and citizens were angry.”

“The policy of smart policing (informed us to) put an officer there to deter any crimes,” he said.

Booth noted there were no encounters between police and residents from while the officer was present.

The same can’t be said about unruly council members, however.

Booth said there’s been a shift in the officer’s responsibilities to intervening between council members.

“That officer is not there to protect council member from council member…not there to mediate," Booth said. "They want that security not because they think security is going to go in there to do something. “hey could not hear because they were talking over each other. That is not a criminal matter and that is not a place where police should be involved.”

First Ward Councilman, Eric Mays, said he believes there are more important places police can be.

“If a police officer was in council they should be ready to go wherever they’re needed at any given time,” Mays said. “But I do see in some cases the need for a police officer to help people, not so much for councilpersons but to protect the public as well. Sometimes emotions get high... During the water crisis we had residents coming in with open carry ... That’s an issue.”

Mays has been removed from council meetings in the past by police, most recently on Jan. 23.

If an incident were to arise at a council meeting where police were needed, Booth said the councilmember may call 911 and the situation would be handled appropriately.

“They will not sit in a city council meeting for six hours,” he said of the department’s officers.

Booth said the elongated disputes between council members comes down to “respecting one another and that’s not happening." He hopes that the governing body would see the value in using the officer to protect the city’s vulnerable citizens via the task force.

“We have asked time and time again for support to hire more officers. You can only do so much with a certain number and then at that point it becomes a chess game,” he noted. “The number one objective is to provide better service to the citizens of Flint and this move does exactly that.”